Hey guys it's Mike Chen and welcome to a very special on-site episode of Beyond Science.
You know i've been wanting to do more of these types of videos going forth, so this will
be the first of hopefully many,
If you've been watching this channel or you've just been paying attention to the news, for
a while now, there has been a lot of talk about going to and living on mars because
we are basically killing this planet.
And apparently mankind really needs to live on mars or live somewhere among the stars
for us to even have a chance of surviving.
Of course, this all sounds very sci-fi-esque, but it is happening.
We are taking steps to become long-distance space travelers.
So today, it is really exciting because I am headed to Denver Colorado, home of Lockheed
Martin Space Systems,
Where a deep space gateway is being built.
And the reason why this gateway is necessary is because right now most spaceships only
plan to go to the International Space Station (ISS) which is like six hours away.
But if we were trying to get to Mars, which is months away, then we really need a cosmic
rest stop.
Personally, I can't even drive from New York To Boston without needing to take a break.
But anyway, this cosmic rest stop is what Lockheed Martin is building and that's what
we're going to check out in this video.
Take a look.
Alright guys, we are here now at the Next Step Habitat Lab.
I'm gonna show you around and tell you what this whole thing is.
So this is Bill.
He's managing this lab here.
And this is your team.
Hey Guys!
And you guys are gonna tell us what that is?
Yeah, let's go take a look.
So what is this going to be used for?
So this is a mockup of our habitat module for the deep space gateway,
and the deep space gateway is NASA's term for a lab or platform that will orbit the
moon and be used for getting humans closer to Mars.
So if you think about it, at the moon, you're far enough away that you can't just push the
button and come home when you have an emergency
like you can on the ISS when you can be back in a matter of hours.
So the ISS is only about six hours away, how far away is this?
This is a few days away, three or four days if you have an emergency.
So it really forces you to start thinking and behaving the way you need to for a long
six to nine month journey to Mars.
The spaceships right now...they're cramped.
And I don't think we're gonna get much better in that department, but you're right, this
is a habitation element or module that's a part of a bigger gateway
where you would have a power and propulsion element that's providing the power and the
avionics, software, propulsion to keep it running.
You also might have an EVA module, which lets the crew members or the astronauts go outside
on space walks if they need to do science on the outside.
And what is this powered by?
So this will be powered by solar rays.
You're actually not seeing the power and propulsion bus here.
It would be on this side of the habitat connected to this.
So what we've mocked up here is just the habitat element.
And people will stock this with supplies frequently?
In this concept you'll see on the top we have what we call radial docking port, that's for
visiting vehicles.
and that's for cargo ships or other elements that you might plug into it.
What you'll see here is the supplies that we use to stock.
Now this is representative of 30 days for a crew of four astronauts.
So they need water, toiletries, toothbrushes, food, everything that you would need to survive
a 30-day roadtrip.
We look at different ways to package our items so that maybe they can help provide radiation
shielding or perform other functions for us.
Let's get a tour!
So here's the inside of the mockup, I'll just point out some of the features.
So one of the things that astronauts are gonna do at a deep space gateway on the far side
of the moon is they're actually going to drive rovers.
So they're going to be doing science on the far side, and that's because they're much
closer to the moon surface than we are here from Earth.
That's helps you in two areas:
1) gives you increased bandwidth, so the ability to get more data and stream it faster cause
you're closer
2) it also lets you get things much quicker, so the latency is much smaller.
So this is a mocked up robotics work station where the astronauts interact with the systems
on board the habitat
and also for the rovers for the science assets on the moon.
We also have allocation for science, so whether it's a freezer or a centrifuge or glove box,
you need the ability to do science while you're onboard the gateway.
So in 0g (zero gravity), you want to make use of all the space you have right?
So in 1g (with gravity), when we walk in it's easy to start thinking about up down left
right, but you quickly realize that you can make use of ALL the space.
So in this mockup, we actually have an exercise treadmill on the ceiling, along with a docking
port.
And you can do things like sleep stations.
Basically, anything can be packaged on any wall in 0g.
So over here we have consumables, food, and personal items packaged here on the side in
boxes.
Here's where the orion spacecraft would dock.
And so it gets its own docking port here on what we call the axial port.
And that's kind of a simulated view inside.
So when Orion is at the deep space gateway, it's what we call a command deck, it basically
takes over all of the major functions of the deep space gateway.
That's what it was designed to do to meet deep space requirements.
Here you have to have a place to stow your trash, and you also have to have a way to
get rid of your trash.
So just like we're bringing supplies up, we have to find a way to take them down so the
cargo container serves both functions.
There's alot of supplies that you need for a 30 to 60 day mission for four people.
30 to 60 days, four astronauts, and this is to scale?
It's to scale, now remember you have maybe just a little bit more on the length but it's
pretty much, plus Orion and any cargo containers.
Where are they sleeping?
That's the part that we don't have mocked up here: sleep stations.
They're not unlike what you see in the International Space Station.
Orion has a toilet, so early on you might find that you use Orion's galley for cooking
food and it also has a toilet.
So the only thing that you would need to provide are additional toiletry items.
And this is a prototype?
Yeah, we actually call it a mockup, which is just a little bit lower.
The prototype is what we're gonna be building in phase 2.
How long is that going to take?
18 months.
That'll be down at Kennedy Space Center.
Do you think this is a necessary step for us to go into deep space?
I do, if you think about the experience that we have so far in human space flight and what
you need to get to Mars, what you really need is to increase duration and distance.
You really have to start forcing yourself to think in that mindset.
Are we thinking about maybe even making habitats further away than this one?
Let's say we build this one, then we build another one even further away?
Absolutely.
I can imagine these gateways or modules in multiple locations, and this particular one
NASA envisions never staying in one place.
Also, we can send a collection of these out to Mars, so we can go into Mars orbit or the
vicinity of Mars before we actually land humans on the surface of Mars.
So you guys built the Orion spacecraft, how does that connect to this?
Orion is what we call the command deck.
Orion, if you can imagine the deep space gateway, you only get about one mission each year with
four astronauts.
In the time that the astronauts aren't here, it's uncrewed, meaning it's kind of in low-power
mode.
But it doesn't need to have the full human rating requirements of, for example, the ISS.
So when Orion comes up, it's got all of the advanced ECLIPSE, Avionics, power, propulsion,
bathroom, and the food preparation.
All of that is stuff that you don't have to duplicate inside the habitat.
So it's more like an extension?
For now?
Yeah it's like an extension for now that'll allow you to start earlier and to be more
affordable in the beginning as you build up the capabilities of the gateway.
You know this is literally like a college dormitory room size...I think my dorm was
bigger...
They got potatoes here!
There's alot you can do with potatoes.
Thanks for the tour Bill!
Paul here is going to show me some AR (augmented reality) that they're doing in the habitat.
What is this?
This is the Microsoft Hololens, and what it is is a pair of goggles that go around your
face that allows you to see the real world but you can also so holograms overlayed on
top of it.
It's a way to see virtual content but in the physical space around you.
I see a guy.
I see a man.
And he's upside down.
So that's our treadmill guy.
Oh he's on the treadmill!
Woah, he definitely needs a bigger treadmill.
I'm seeing somebody here in the computers.
He's not having as much fun as the guy on the treadmill.
I see a dot flying...Yeah that's what you're looking at, that's called your gaze.
So these are the only two things i'm seeing?
The robotics work station, so like virtual prototypes of it, got a guy operating it and
a guy on the treadmill.
Where are the other two guys?
They're not in yet...
AR is used mostly for gaming right now, I have one at home.
Why do you guys use this?
So AR is really useful for us in the case that we can design things on the computer,
and before we actually build a physical prototype of it we can just virtually represent it.
We can make sure everything looks good, everything fits in good into the space, nothings colliding
with each other.
For example, we can put the astronaut working on the control station and the astronaut on
the treadmill, and we can see if they're colliding into each other.
And you guys are going to make this into a video game right?...
This is actually a smaller 3D Printer than what you might find in space.
And this is just something that we use here in the lab to build prototypes of parts before
we actually go and built them.
So this is like a model 3D printer?
Exactly.
So right now on the ISS, they're experimenting with how to best use 3D printers in space.
They don't rely on the 3D printer yet but that's coming.
And that's what we envision for the next generation of deep space travel.
That makes sense.
Instead of lugging all the stuff up, lug up some material that can be transformed into
whatever parts you need.
All you do is you bring up the catalog of parts that you might need to replicate or
if there's a part that's not in your catalog, the ground control just beams it up to you.
You hit print on the printer, and bam.
This is a question brought up by one of the audience members: can you 3D print food?
I have actually seen 3D printed food, or 3D printed pizza at a conference.
I did not have the guts to try it and it looked terrible, but I know the people working on
it.
Chocolate is definitely something i've seen and that can be done.
The idea is you need sort of an extruder for each flavor.
When do you think that's going to be a big part of space missions?
So that's a part of our concept right now and something that we're trying to build into
the deep space gateway so that it's there.
I think we're still very early, but over time we will get there.
They're already doing it on the ISS now, and I think that's the natural progression.
So one of the great things about VR is that you can do things that you might not be able to do on earth in the virtual space.
So one of the great things is that maybe you can
do astronaut training.
If you need to run through a process or program.
So kind of like what I just did, collecting samples, but I failed.
You don't always have to be sitting, if you have a space set up that is more interactive,
it could be very high fidelity.
You could really interact with that space and really learn all those mechanics that
you need for your training.
So before you go into a space shuttle and destroy it or throw an asteroid sample at
it, you know what all the levers do, you know where things are so you're not lost when you're
there.
If you ever need to do training again or on orbit, instead of having to leaf through
some paper, a hundred million pages, you can just drop in and check it out.
Do you guys also have things set up where if they make a mistake, like HEY I pushed
the wrong lever now the spacecraft exploded...
Yeah you can definitely have scenarios like that...
I feel like that's important because they need to know what NOT to do as well!